I'm thinking of using fine mesh paint/varnish strainers to strain stock, but I'm wondering about chemical contamination. The paint strainers I'm looking at are made of nylon, paper and cloth. I've read that in restaurant kitchens, cooks sometimes use them as a bag to hold all the solids in a soup. When the soup is done, they just lift out the bag. Anyone aware of any food safety issues from using these industrial products in cooking? Any contaminants released by exposure to the boiling stock that a pre-soaking or pre-boiling would not address?

Anti-fungal agents in the paper and maybe nylon?
I don't think it would matter, but surely you can buy a strainer for this purpose.

I'm assuming this is a nice unused strainer, but just as an aside, ALL paint contains some lead even nowadays, up to 0.2%, according to some respectable sources I've come across... This is not because it is thought to be low enough to be safe, but because it's too much work to do anything about it.

Huh.....funny subject...I actually work for Binks...we make paint guns and things for painting....we have some paint strainers that are completely cotton that would work perfectly for you....200, 300, 600 mesh...our nylon strainers are not coated and would be fine.